Spear Phishing vs. Phishing: Key Differences Explained

Your user credentials are a goldmine of data. Any threat actor can exploit them. Google receives around 100 million emails daily, more than 48% of which are spam messages. More than a fifth of these emails come from Russia. Millennials and Gen-Z internet users are dealing with the consequences of various phishing schemes in 2024. A majority of phishing attacks are conducted via emails, but some take the form of malicious websites.

16.5 emails are leaked daily for every 100 internet users, and there are cases of breached databases being sold on the dark web. Cybercriminals can sell these databases, auction them off online, or use them to harvest additional details for carrying out more sophisticated phishing schemes. Businesses must take cybersecurity seriously, especially in highly regulated industries like finance, law, eCommerce, and other domains.

As of 2024, the most common domain names are .com, .org, .top, .net, and .eu. A single data breach can cost an organization over 10 million records, resulting in a staggering USD 4.88 million or more in financial losses! Phishing targets the masses, but spear-phishing profiles victims and selectively targets them.

You can’t defend against these threats if you aren’t aware of them. You need to understand how they work.

In this guide, we will discuss the difference between spear phishing and phishing and highlight their risks, prevention strategies, examples, and more.

What is Phishing?

Phishing is a classic email-based attack that is generic by nature. The best way to explain how phishing works is to think of it as an email sent to everybody. This email doesn’t target a specific individual; it addresses all organization members.

For example, imagine if a company is about to host an event this week. All your teammates look forward to receiving an announcement email. You are waiting for the venue dates, timings, and other details. The attacker may pose as a company and send out a fake email from a fake domain to misdirect everyone. They may be asked to click links in the email to confirm attendance. Nobody will suspect a thing.

A typical phishing email may contain malicious attachments, fake login pages, web forms, and other elements. Some emails instill a sense of urgency and require immediate response, while others prompt the user to share sensitive details quickly.

What is Spear Phishing?

Spear phishing is very specific, and the attacker will know many details about you. Spear phishing is not addressed to general members of the organization; the attacker will profile the victim for several months and study them. They will craft highly personalized emails and include details that cross-verify the facts that they present within these emails. So, the victim gets convinced that the emails originate from genuine sources and eventually engages with them.

What makes spear phishing so scary? It can take advantage of general human traits, such as the willingness to be helpful; spear phishing emails may be presented with a positive tone or encourage the reader to act in ways that benefit them somehow. It may spark curiosity within readers to explore additional resources. The attack schemes are crafty, as readers are guided through several layers of sophistication. The main goal of spear phishing is to get victims to share sensitive details after attackers make them feel confident about their identities as outsiders. So, spear phishing is not your average email; you can’t identify it out of the blue. These emails are very well-made, and you won’t see them coming.

Risks Associated with Spear Phishing vs Phishing

These are the risks associated with phishing vs. spear phishing:

Phishing Risks

Organizations are vulnerable to the following risks with phishing attacks:

• Scammers can steal credit card information and use it to check out at POS terminals
• Your own company’s genuine emails may reach the attacker’s inbox
• Organizations can get their names involved in financial fraud incidents
• Attackers can hijack social security numbers and use them to open fraudulent accounts. They may gain unauthorized access to unique banking, government, and healthcare services.
• Phishing emails can deliver ransomware to recipients. Once they open and install these attachments, they will be victims of ransomware attacks.
• Individuals who launch phishing campaigns may embed spyware or keyloggers to monitor victims’ activities on systems. They can steal additional data over time and potentially cause damages that lead to ruining a company’s reputation or trust among customers.

Spear Phishing Risks

Spear phishing attacks are well-crafted, sophisticated, and have a layer of detail beyond traditional phishing attacks. Attackers do their homework in advance and know exactly how to trick victims. Here are its common risks:

• Spear phishing emails don’t just target company employees. They may go for your friends, colleagues, and coworkers. These emails appear to come from reputable sources, so victims don’t suspect a thing.
• Spear phishing emails may offer incentives for revealing sensitive data. They ask for passwords, bank account details, credit card numbers, and other financial data. These emails may also add fear to these emails. For example, a classic spear phishing email may say you’re locked out of your account unless you share these details and unlock them immediately.
• Companies can lose their trade secrets if they’re not careful about spear phishing attacks. They can also compromise their business operations, experience extended periods of downtime, and face operational shutdowns. An average spear phishing attack can lock down critical data, corrupt files, or even destroy hardware.
• Your clients and colleagues can question your security practices once you fall victim to a spear phishing attack. It’s because they’re not regular but unpredictable and highly personalized. The damage it causes to a business’s reputation is extreme and can directly impact your revenue growth and future business opportunities. Once lost by your clients, the trust can take years or even decades to rebuild.
• Spear phishing is scary because your attackers research you very well. They may use information about your job title, relationships at work, hobbies, and other lifestyle quirks. Victims cannot sometimes guess that the sender is an attacker. They fall victim to spear phishing schemes, which eventually compound into full-blown financial theft or corporate espionage.
• Spear phishing attacks may cause companies to fall out of compliance and face non-compliance charges. They may also face legal issues with failing to handle sensitive consumer data, which, if not adequately protected, can lead to fines and expensive lawsuits.

Spear Phishing vs Phishing: Examples

Spear phishing usually appears as a Business Email Compromise (BEC) attack. You’d least expect it. The attacker will pretend to be a known supplier, individual, or trusted organization member. Phishing is more generic and sent to groups or masses. Check out these spear phishing and phishing email examples:

Phishing Tactic 1: The Bulk Attack

You receive an email that appears to be from your bank, telling you that there’s an issue with your account and that you need to “verify your identity.” The email contains a link to a site that looks like your bank’s login page, but it’s actually a fake site designed to steal your login credentials.

How it works:

• The email is sent to thousands of people at once.
• Your messages are generic, with no personal details included.
• The attacker relies on volume, hoping that someone will fall for it.
• No specific knowledge about you or your job is used—just a typical scam.

Spear Phishing Tactic 1: Targeted Executive Attack

You are the CFO of a prestigious cybersecurity company. Your attacker has access to your company’s website and has reviewed your LinkedIn profile. One day, you receive an email that asks you to review a critical cybersecurity report. It contains a link that, when clicked, infects your device with malware.

How it works:

• The attacker has researched you and your company.
• The email is highly personalized, mentioning specific roles, names, and details about your company.
• The message appears authentic because it comes from your CEO.
• You’re less likely to question it because it looks legitimate, increasing the chances of success.

Phishing Tactic 2: The Fake Subscription Service:

You get an email claiming to be from a well-known online streaming service. It says that your subscription has been suspended due to payment issues. You’re instructed to update your billing info through the attached link to restore access.

How it works:

• An email is sent to a broad audience using a generic email template.
• The URL looks suspicious but includes common words like “account” or “update.”
• It’s a quick, low-effort attack, relying on the hopes that someone will click without thinking.

Spear Phishing Tactic 2: Vendor Payment Scams

This spear phishing attempt targets a company’s CFO. The attacker has gained information about an ongoing business relationship with a third-party vendor, which is publicly available online. An email posing as the vendor’s financial department requests an urgent wire transfer to a new account number.

How it works:

• The email is personalized with vendor-specific details, such as invoice numbers and previous payment history. The attacker uses public data to make the request appear legitimate.
• The CFO is tricked into authorizing the payment, thinking it’s routine; funds are transferred to an attacker-controlled account, causing financial losses.

Phishing Tactic 3:  Fake Job Offers

A phishing email lands in your inbox, promising you a great new job opportunity. It asks for personal details and a copy of your resume to proceed with the application. Once submitted, your data is used to access other accounts or commit identity theft.

How it works:

• An email is sent to a large number of people. It’s designed to appeal to job seekers using a fake company logo or a reputable name.
• No actual research has been done on the recipients. It’s just a mass attack.

Spear Phishing Tactic 4: Insider Threat Simulation

An attacker pretends to be an internal staff member and sends an email to the IT administrator of a financial institution. The email talks about an urgent password reset and requests access to the company’s internal system. It looks legitimate because it mimics a standard internal process with IT system links and employee information.

How it works:

• It explicitly targets the IT admin by studying internal company workflows.
• It is crafted using internal company language, making it appear as though it’s from a trusted source.

Phishing Tactic 4: Free Software Download

You receive an email claiming to be from a software company offering a “free upgrade” to the latest version of a popular tool you use. A download link is included. It contains malware that activates automatically when clicked.

How it works:

• It’s a simple, automated attack sent to many users at once.
• The offer looks too good to pass up, making people more likely to click.
• No personalized information is used.

Spear Phishing Tactic 4: The Cloud Account Compromise

An attacker sends an email to the cloud admin of a company, claiming to be the cloud provider’s support team. The email talks about recent cloud services the company has been facing. It requests for your immediate verification of user credentials. You will probably click on it and interact as a cloud systems admin. You won’t question it since the issues mentioned in the email are what you’re currently facing.

How you get hacked:

• The email uses precise details about the cloud environment and provider.
• Credential requests feel urgent; they prompt the admin to act quickly without hesitation.
• It hijacks and gains access to your company’s critical cloud resources and sensitive data.

Phishing and Spear Phishing: At a Glance

Spear phishing and phishing differ in how they approach victims to steal information. Here are their similarities and differences at a glance:

1. Target audience

A phishing email targets the whole company. It’s not detailed or targeted. Spear phishing is more detailed and requires a deep understanding of the victim. In phishing, the attack is on everyone. However, spear phishing is restricted to a specific person.

2. Content and Effort

Phishing emails require little effort and may contain grammatical mistakes. There may be spelling errors and missing punctuation, and you’ll notice clear signs of poorly presented information. These emails are evident.

But spear phishing is different. Making a spear phishing email takes weeks or months of victim profiling. Generic information isn’t enough. It takes more effort, and that’s why it’s well-researched. The attacker will know very well about their victim before crafting these emails.

3. Social Engineering Tactics

How attackers will profile you in a spear phishing vs phishing attack will also vary. For phishing emails, they collect generic information about your company. But in spear phishing, they will try to learn everything about you.

Phishing headlines are also very generic, like: “Your account has been suspended,” “We are terminating your services soon,” or “Congrats! Click here to claim your prize!”. They hope to instill fear, urgency, or greed and evoke the recipient’s emotional response or action. In spear phishing, the attacker will try to let your guard down and make you feel relaxed or confident. They slowly gain your trust and eventually breach your systems after collecting enough information in stages.

Spear Phishing vs Phishing: Key Differences

Here are the critical differences between phishing and spear phishing.

How SentinelOne Protects Against Spear Phishing and Phishing Attacks

SentinelOne offers powerful email security features that can safeguard organizations against phishing and spear phishing attacks. Your organization needs an effective incident response and recovery plan in those rare cases in which it gets hit. The first step to prevention is detection, and SentinelOne’s integrated enterprise security solution, Singularity™ Platform, can help. It will build the proper cybersecurity foundation for your organization. You can use Singularity™ Platform to achieve maximum visibility into your cloud security posture. It will protect every attack surface and secure your hybrid cloud ecosystems. You can use Singularity™ Identity to protect your identity infrastructure and credentials. It will stop the misuse of credentials and identify more than 750+ secrets for their effective management, rotation, and protection.

Singularity™ Hologram will turn the tables on your adversaries and lure them into revealing themselves using the art of deception. It will snare adversaries and insiders lurking anywhere in the network as they move laterally and interact with decoy assets and lures. Singularity™ Threat Intelligence will give you a deep understanding of your threat landscape. It is powered by Mandiant, open-source threat intelligence (OSINT), and proprietary intelligence.

To explore more SentinelOne offerings and learn how they can combat spear phishing and phishing attacks, book a free live demo.

Conclusion

The best way to fight against spear phishing and phishing is to be aware of their level of detail. Don’t take any messages for granted; carefully scan the contents before clicking or engaging with them. Train your employees and team members to be aware of these threats. You can run phishing and spear phishing tests periodically to assess them.

If you need help in identifying spear phishing vs phishing attacks, use SentinelOne today.

Phishing vs Spear Phishing FAQs

1. What is the goal of phishing attacks?

Phishing attacks aim to prompt victims to share personal information or get them to download malicious content.

2. How can I guard against spear phishing?

Enable multi-factor authentication, avoid clicking suspicious links, and stay vigilant. Also, train yourself and your team to recognize common phishing signs.

3. How can you identify a spear phishing email?

Spear phishing emails usually address you personally and may reference details such as your job role or workplace.

4. What should I do if I receive a phishing email?

Do not click any links. Report the email to your IT team or use available tools to mark it as phishing.​ SentinelOne solutions can help you start protecting against phishing.